“My sister had trusted me with him,” said Pamela Rauseo, the aunt of 5-month-old Sebastian de la Cruz. While driving with Sebastian, she looked at the back seat and realized that the baby had stopped breathing. Though in panic, she immediately stopped the car, got out and started screaming for help.

Lucila Godoy, the driver of the car behind Pamela’s, was the first to react. Trained in First Aid, she started performing CPR on the baby as other helping hands started to arrive.

Al Diaz, a Miami Herald reporter also driving close, jumped out of his car and ran for help. He found Sweetwater police officer Amauris Bastidas, who dashed to the scene and took over CPR from Godoy, performing chest pumps while Rauseo breathed into the baby’s mouth.

“I lifted him up in the air and moved him up and down,” Bastidas said. “He started breathing and crying.” But then the baby stopped breathing for the second time, so he began the CPR maneuver all over again.

Anthony Trim and Alvaro Tonanez, from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Hazardous Materials Unit, heard the emergency call over the radio while stuck in the same traffic jam, and joined Pamela, Lucila, Al and Amauris to help. “The aunt gave him the baby,” Trim said of Tonanez. “He did a quick check and made sure the baby’s airway was open.”

Thanks to the quick work of everyone on scene, the baby survived. Sebastian was rushed to Hospital and recovered quickly. Without having been surrounded by CPR-trained civilians and professionals, the baby may not have been so lucky.

A CPR / First Aid course can take a few hours,but it saves lives. Pledge to take one of these courses and sign up today!